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Book Review: Shakespeare Unleashed (Unleashed, #2) edited by James Aquilone

Shakespeare Unleashed (Unleashed, #2) edited by James Aquilone

Monstrous Books, 2023

ISBN: 9781946346193

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle

Buy:   Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

This is the second book in the Unleashed series, the first being Classic Monsters Unleashed, previokusly reviewed for this website.  Like its predecessor, the stories are re-imaginings, continuations, or inspired by the Bard’s work.  How does it fare?  Pretty well, the book starts slow but gets better throughout, with the real bangers finishing out the book with a flourish.  If you haven’t read Shakespeare since being force-fed it in high school, it really helps to at least read the Wikipedia entries for his most famous works before reading the book.  Otherwise, a sizable portion of the stories might seem confusing.

 

The stories pull from a variety of Shakespeare’s work, with none of them used as a subject more than three times.  The usual suspects, like Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet are represented, as well as lesser-known ones like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and A Winter’s Tale.  Some stories add a prequel or epilogue, or a separate story involving one of the characters.  The best ones tend to be the ‘inspired by’ variety, where the basic concept is used in a different setting.

 

The first quarter of the book may be the weakest, and the hardest to follow, with the story ‘All Hallowed Tides Break Upon These Shores,’ a coda to The Tempest, being a bloody exception.  The story quality becomes better and more consistent the rest of the way.   Lavinia from Titus Andronicus features in a well-written tale of female revenge, “The Body, The Blood, The Woods, The Stage”, and the lecherous Sir John Falstaff gets a darkly comic dose of payback in “The Hungry Wives of Windsor”.The last quarter of the book is full of excitement and good writing.  Standouts are the Macbethian “Case of the Bitter Witch”, the Romeo-esque “Timeless Tragedy,”, and the King Lear inspired “Fortune”: all are outstanding.  They take the basic Shakespeare premise and run off in an entirely new direction, with excellent results.  It’s worth noting that with only an exception or two, the authors did NOT try to emulate the Bard’s writing style, but wisely stuck with their own styles.   The stories do get slick with blood at times, which is fitting, since Shakespeare’s work could be violent at times.  He just didn’t write graphically, which is something modern authors can certainly do!

 

Bottom line?  The book is a mixed bag, but there are enough good stories to justify the purchase.  Just re-acquaint yourself with Sir William ahead of time before getting the book, then watch the curtain rise on some truly twisted tales.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on August 11, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: In the Lair of Legends by David Buzan

In The Lair of Legends by David Buzan

Black Rose Writing, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-68513-250-7 (Paperback), 978-1-68513-331-3 (Hardcover)

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

In The Lair of Legends by David Buzan is a well-written, exciting tale that combines action, myth and history.

 

Jolon Winterhawk is a Nez Perce warrior who was one of thousands of Native Americans who fought for the Union and Confederacy in the Civil War. Ten years later Lieutenant Winterhawk has one last assignment for the Union before returning to his wife and daughter. He is accompanying a large shipment of confiscated gold ore to an Army post in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. The train carrying the ore is ambushed by a vengeful, renegade Mexican general. The raid sets off a chain of clashes between Winterhawk, the general, corrupt Union officers, lumberjacks and the Native people’s legendary Nu’numic (Ancient Ones, Sasquatch, Bigfoot).

 

The plot is fast-paced. Almost very chapter brings new, deadly clashes. The author describes the fights in stop-action detail and with abundant gore. However, the author presents the action with interesting and important pieces of history. The role of Native Americans in the Civil War, their plight after the War and the role of railroads in the West put the story in perspective. The author has done a lot of additional research. His detailed descriptions of weapons, ballooning and logging add verisimilitude to his novel.

 

Young adult and adult readers should enjoy the novel’s action and learning about history at the same time.

 

Highly recommended for young adults and adults

 

Contains: gore, mild profanity

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

Posted on August 2, 2023 by , 1 comment

Book Review: Hell’s Gulf by Nick Carlson

 

Hell’s Gulf by Nick Carlson

Temple Dark Publications, 2022

ISBN: 9781739749200

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com 

 

If you’re going to vacation on the Florida Coast at a place called Hell’s Gulf, you probably should expect weirdness, and that’s exactly what the reader gets.  Latrine lizards that bite people’s bottoms, deranged murder dolphins, intelligent sand crabs… the gang’s all here.  Throw in a couple demons/gods from Caribbean and Irish folklore, plus a pool that functions as a sort of portal, and you have the ultimate inspirational place for young aspiring writer Rowan Vane.  As he soon finds, inspiration can be deadly.

 

The story hums along as Rowan’s family settles on the Gulf for a week-long vacation, because it is all they can afford.  Naturally, the locals are eclectic, and distrustful of outsiders, hiding the secrets of the town’s sordid past, secrets that continue to plague them in the present day. 

 

This isn’t a new plotline by any stretch, but it still works, as Carlson has written in an entertaining fashion. The combination of strange creatures and  colorful locals is enough of an infusion into a familiar plot to keep the reader’s interest, even if the story can be predictable at times. 

 

The part of the book that really shines the brightest is the supporting cast.  Rowan, as a protagonist,  isn’t particularly inspiring or interesting, but the other characters lend more than enough support to make up for him.  The Clermont family, consisting of an old Caribbean hoodoo woman and her two obnoxious twentysomething sons, are the best part of the book and are the most believable: they truly convey the feeling of a small, backwards, swampy town.  Other locals, such as Large Marge, also lend a hand. This is one of those books where the true stars are the setting and the people that dwell there: the stage itself is the true star of the play.    

 

Bottom line: this is a fun read, nothinlg breathtaking, but still enjoyable.  It will be interesting to see if the author revisits Hell’s Gulf and writes a story focusing strictly on the town and its denizens.  Based on this book, they would have plenty to support a story all of their own.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.

Posted on August 1, 2023 by , Reply
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